What if Walt Disney was the producer of Looney Tunes/Walt Disney Animated Classics/An American Tail
An American Tail is a 1986 American animated musical adventure family comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. It is directed by Don Bluth and produced by Walt Disney and John Pomeroy, with Steven Spielberg as an executive producer. It tells the story of Fievel Mousekewitz and his family as they emigrate from the Imperial Russian territory of Ukraine to the United States for freedom. However, he gets lost and must find a way to reunite with them. It was released on November 21, 1986, to reviews that ranged from positive to mixed and was a box office hit, making it Disney's highest-grossing animated film at the time, in sharp contrast to the box office under-performance of Disney's previous animated feature film The Black Cauldron (1985). As such, the new senior management of the company were convinced that their animation department was still a viable enterprise and this set the stage for the Disney Renaissance. It should be also noted that this is the film which saved Disney's animation studio from going bankrupt at the time. The film's success, along with that of, The Great Mouse Detective, Little Orphan Annie, Oliver & Company, The Land Before Time, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid and All Dogs Go to Heaven, prompted Steven Spielberg to be an executive producer in most Disney animated films in the 1990s, until he finished his contract in 1995 and established his own animation studio, DreamWorks Animation. Plot In Shostka in 1885, the Mousekewitzes, a Russo-Jewish family of mice are having a celebration of Hanukkah where the father gives his hat to his 7-year-old son, Fievel, and tells about the United States, a country where there are no injustice. The celebration is interrupted when a group of Cossacks ride through the village square in an Russian Revolution arson attack the whole village. The home of the Mousekewitz family is destroyed. In Hamburg, the Mousekewitzes board a tramp steamer headed for New York City. During a thunderstorm on their journey, Fievel suddenly finds himself separated from his family and washed overboard. Thinking that he has died, they proceed to the city as planned, though they become depressed at his loss. However, Fievel floats to New York City in a bottle and, after a pep talk from a French pigeon named Henri, embarks on a quest to find his family. He is waylaid by con-man Warren T. Rat, who gains his trust and then sells him to a sweatshop. He escapes with Tony Toponi, a street-smart Italian mouse and they join up with Bridget, an Irish mouse trying to rouse her fellow mice to fight a gang of gangsters called the Mott Street Maulers, Carol, a mystery-loving dog and her short-tempered brother Jack. When the Mott Street Maulers attacks a marketplace, the immigrant animals learn that the tales of a injustice-free country are not true. Bridget takes Fievel and Tony to see Honest Johan, an alcoholic politician lion who knows the city's voting people. However, he cannot help Fievel search for his family, as they have not yet registered to vote. Meanwhile, his older sister, Tanya, tells her gloomy parents she has a feeling that he is still alive, but they insist that it will eventually go away. Led by the rich and powerful Gussie Mausheimer, the mice and dogs hold a rally to decide what to do about the Maulers. Warren is extorting them all for protection that he never provides. No one knows what to do about it, until Fievel whispers a plan to Gussie. Although his family also attends, they stand well in the back of the audience and they are unable to recognize Fievel onstage with her. The mice take over an abandoned museum on the Chelsea Piers and begin constructing their plan. On the day of launch, Fievel gets lost and stumbles upon Warren's lair. He discovers that he is actually the leader of the Maulers in disguise. They capture and imprison Fievel, but his guard is a reluctant member of the gang, a goofy, soft-hearted long-haired orange tabby cat named Tiger, who befriends and frees him. Fievel races back to the pier with the Maulers chasing after him when Gussie orders the mice to release the secret weapon. A huge mechanical mouse, inspired by the bedtime tales Papa told to Fievel of the "Giant Mouse of Minsk", chases the Maulers down the pier and into the water, while Warren is arrested by the police. A tramp steamer bound for Hong Kong picks them up on its anchor and carries them away. However, a pile of leaking kerosene cans has caused a torch lying on the ground to burn the pier, and the animals are forced to flee when the fire department arrive to extinguish it. During the fire, Fievel is once again separated from his family and ends up at an orphanage. Papa and Tanya overhear Bridget, Tony, Carol and Jack calling out to Fievel, but Papa is sure that there may be another "Fievel" somewhere, until Mama finds his hat. Joined by Gussie, Tiger allows them to ride him in a final effort to find Fievel and they are successful. The journey ends with Henri taking everyone to see his newly completed project—the Statue of Liberty, which appears to smile and wink at Fievel and Tanya, and the Mouskewitzes' new life in America begins. Cast Production Development Writing Casting Design Animation Production difficulties Music Reception Critical response Box office Accolades Media Home media Theme parks Sequels Trivia *This film is sometimes considered, by fans and animation historians, to be the unofficial start of the Disney Renaissance. This is mostly due to the fact that this movie had saved Disney's animation departament from going completely bankrupt at the time, and it should be noted that this film did play a big impact on the Disney Renaissance as well.